I want you to glance at me when I pass by.
Notice me when I actually try.
I want you to hold my hand when we walk.
Notice how beautiful I am everytime we talk.
I want you to kiss me under the sun.
Notice me coming undone.
I want you to tell me you love me.
Notice how you're the only one I see.
I want you not to yell.
Notice me trying to escape this hell.
I want you to stay.
Notice how every **** night I pray.
I want you to come back.
Notice me trying to so hard to back track.
I want you to love me again.
Notice how I can't let this be the end

Maybe that was my number one mistake.
Not noticing the steps that I always take.

They lead to my downfall every ******* time.
Breaking my heart, to you, obviously is not a crime.

Setting out, Sun reflects his light through trees bare of leaves, their limbs cast shadows on the road, like veins made visible they lay across the land connecting everything…shift.

Ahead, eyes focused forward, the larger picture is laid before me, the details in the distance dance out of bounds, only becoming clear when they wish for me to know them…shift.

Standing tall, rising to heed the call of the climb, I feel my breath and hear the beat of my heart keeping time with the turning of my feet. Adversity rides with me, he questions my confidence and fortitude without seeing I have made it this far before…shift.

Flying, only downward rather than up. My legs quickly turn, refreshed from the release of tension. The howling in my ears mixed with the rush of speed assures me I am alive…shift.

The winds refuse to ease, and they remind me of their promise to make me stronger. My body is slow, but steady is the rhythm, and my acceptance of the challenge rewards me…shift.

Behind me now is all that has been achieved. Turning home, Sun warms my shoulders as birds dart from bush to branch, asking me to stay. Shadows grow long while lingering clouds disappear giving way to Moon, her face pale in the hours before twilight…shift.

Out here, I am offered perspective. Beautifully, nature eases the effort of riding through life, shifting gears.

You must have a strong will
In order to survive
Remove from self-doubt
So you can thrive
Put your heart into everything
Get it all in line
Go forth and do great things
Be the one to make your world shine

It was an interesting thing
to be in a bookstore
with him.

The altered state came
almost immediately,
it was hard not
to notice the happening
of it.

It was an electricity
that changed,
charged his large
frame,

making him almost
mountainous.

For just a minute,
we were all blokes
who liked
books,

but he became
a book-buyer/bookseller
a few paces past
the threshold.

When he spotted that
one treasure, that particular
hardcover,
perhaps a first-edition,
he proclaimed
it’s value forthwith.

With his eyes wide,
a sidelong grin,
he dived into the pages,
inhaled deeply
through his nose.

Continuing,
he examines
the tome fastidiously,
expertly announces
the novel’s value
at thrice what the
shopkeeper is asking
and advances to the
counter.

Soon after,
we left that shop,
each of us weighed
down with brown paper
parcels.

Stowing those,
we then sought
smoked gouda,
beef sandwiches,
and potatoes fried
in duck fat.

It was time for lunch.

*

-JBClaywell
©P&ZPublications; 2016

They say words
can cut you
with wounds deeper
than a knife could
But how is it that
your silence
is what cuts me
through my veins
and kills me softly
inside

It's surprising, how many people
forget
That a certain amount of
Simple, small
Hairline fractures
Can break a bone.